It's like every single sinister, futuristic movie plot all thrown together at once...everyone's worst fears regarding VR and AI and integrated
consciousness (and robots...it's always robots) come to pass. How collectively (pun intended, yes) stupid would we feel if we discovered that we've
been slowly assimilating ourselves this entire time, social media and networking being the introductory phase? Here we are thinking we're expressing
our individuality but in reality we've been just another ordinary cog in the same wheel? I mean, I suppose after a certain point we would not really
care anymore or remember that we once cared, but still...what a depressing thought.

Once it's engineered to be non-invasive, absolutely. Don't wanna have to have brain surgery just to be on brain net, but if it were possible to have
the implants placed by nanobots in pill form, you bet.

That's a question I think people should really start considering. I found a few years of Second Life to be quite entertaining, if not for the sake of
how near unrestricted you were in it. I imagine such a scenario in a simulated reality to be infinitely more attractive, though I have to question
what such freedom would do to our collective psyche. Time dilation is undoubtedly an issue. Many already view themselves as gods in their own right,
what would happen if we essentially did become (simulated) gods? Oh, the possibilities. What happens when you become bored of creating any and
everything you can imagine? Oh, the horror. There are downsides to immortality and the control of reality...

I would be very interested in learning about that. Any suggested reading, or do you just want to insult people?

The history is there just look at how long ago they started looking at keeping brains alive. Human studies have always been secret for obvious
reasons. No one is going to admit to these kinds of knowledge and experiments. it can be done so it has been done.
To make it less secret they have to get people to be accepting, they will have to ease people into it.

Nearly two decades later, a new phase of research may be about to begin. A 35-year-old, Harvard-trained St. Louis attorney who writes and patents his
techniques under the name of Chet Fleming -- his real name is Patrick Kelly -- has acquired a unique and unusual patent, number 4,666,425, which
describes a machine to keep alive severed heads, animal or human.

Nor is this the first time in history that people have wondered what happens inside a severed head or tried to preserve one. In 1887, a French
scientist tried to attach heads of executed prisoners fresh from the guillotine to the bodies of large dogs.

1887 – Jean Baptiste Vincent Laborde made what appears to be first recorded attempt to revive the heads of executed criminals by connecting the
carotid artery of the severed human head to the carotid artery of a large dog.[6] According to Laborde's account, in isolated experiments a partial
restoration of brain function was attained

So, to answer your question: Sure, a whole brain can be kept alive, at least potentially and with today's technology. It's mostly a matter of
developing the existing techniques, and we're still working on it.

As for how long it can be kept alive - conceivably, for a normal lifespan.

For the love of science, let's not bring religion into this. There is a reason I didn't post this in the metaphysics or religious forums.

Once we go religion, all reason goes out the _

Who says it has anything to do with religion? Religious texts were meant to provide us with a chronology of events, guidelines from past
experiences...religion is nothing but our interpretation of scientific things that we cannot understand just yet. Just my opinion, of course, but
really science and religion are one and the same...we all believe the same things at the core of it, if we could only learn to speak the same language
we would have such a different way of looking at the world. (Hopefully, not as a collective either...I'm rather fond of my uniqueness.)

Will neural patterns be developed that are codes for memories; books, skills, any kind of experience? Definite Matrix/Borg territory.

The truth is that anything that happens to us sensually is perceived as information from 5 senses as a neural pattern. If the neural patterns of
experience could be translated into a neural code and sent straight to the memory via the correct neural path ways then that is where the human brain
is accessible digitally.

Will neural patterns be developed that are codes for memories; books, skills, any kind of experience? Definite Matrix/Borg territory.

The truth is that anything that happens to us sensually is perceived as information from 5 senses as a neural pattern. If the neural patterns of
experience could be translated into a neural code and sent straight to the memory via the correct neural path ways then that is where the human brain
is accessible digitally.

Right... back to those monkeys in my lab (evil genius laugh).

That is our inevitable future, yes. Coupled with de-facto immortality via
either consciousness uploading, or stopping/reversing the aging process. Chances are, babies born today will have a functionally indefinite lifespan.
As futurist Ray Kurzweil put it: "You only have to live long enough to live forever."

I'm accepting of animal experimentation, but I'm having trouble finding the human benefits of this technology.
Maybe someone with a more tech oriented mind can explain to me how this sort of link would be advantageous for human society...that is if they can
avoid being thrown into this mental human centipede.

Anything involving sticking electrodes into live brains could help the paralyzed.

In AI classes, they would talk about how a complex task could be split into a large number of simple tasks like a factory assembly line. Driving a car
is complex, but can be split up into separate tasks such as controlling the steering wheel, the gear stick, the brake, clutch and accelerator, the
indicator lights and responding to events in the front and rear windscreens.

If they can get two or more people to super-coordinate their actions, like a aircraft flight crew, who knows what's possible.

Scientists have linked together multiple monkey brains, and trained them to perform synchronised tasks.

I can't explain it nearly as well as the article, but this freaks me out.

I'm not a Luddite, I am pro science and most experimentation, but utilizing humans is clearly the next step.
There are ethical and moral quandaries here that I can't begin to fathom.

Is this the future...human brains linked into a neural net all over the planet?

ive speculated for a little while now that the rate and direction of our technological advancements would make a hivemind the next logical step. we
already share everything via social networks, its not a big stretch. not to mention that global security would be much more efficient if an antivirus
software were applied to a network in which all of society was nestled like billions of honeycombs a la the matrix.

What if we have already done this? What if we are a collective mind living through each others experiences. Due to our infinite boredom we restrict
our perception to keep the experiences new. As a collective we could perform this task while keeping our consciousness split between living all lives
individually and exploring/creating all things. What if we are all a part of GOD already. What if dreams are a glimpse of other things we are doing.
What if deep down we create religions to explain a truth we now deep down within us.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.